How many of you can actually remember your baptism? Raise your hands. Keep your hands up in the air for a moment. For those of you with your hands in the air, for how many of you was your baptism a pivotal event in your life - if it was, keep your hand up - if not, put your hand down. OK, everyone put your hands down. Now many of us did not raise our hands. And many of us have what I would call "baptism envy." We were baptized as infants or very young children, and therefore we don't remember it. It was something done to us - and we know intellectually it is important, but since we can't remember the feel of water splashing on our heads and we can't remember the words that were said, it feels like a distant and remote thing.

But whether you can literally remember your baptism or not, I want to invite you today to wade in those waters again so that together we might rediscover the centrality that baptism can and does play in our lives as the people of God.

The baptism is Jesus' first appearance as an adult in Matthew's gospel. Matthew begins his gospel story with the account of Joseph discovering that his fiance was pregnant (not by him), being told by an angel to raise the child as his own and to name him Jesus. After the child was born, wise men from the East came and visited him, Herod plotted his revenge, Joseph, Mary and the baby fled to Egypt, and then when the coast was clear, they went to Nazareth. No angel choirs, no shepherds, no presentation of the baby in the Temple, no story of Jesus as a boy being left in Jerusalem leading a Bible study with the scribes and elders - all of that is in Luke. In Matthew, it's simpler - Jesus is born, the family moves around a bit, and the next time we meet him, he is approaching John at the Jordan River.

Now it is important to remember that by the time Matthew writes his gospel, baptism is a well-established practice for Christians. It is THE rite of inclusion into the people of God. So when early Christians would read this passage, they would think to themselves: "Yeah, right, I went through this as well!" So Jesus' baptism served as the archetype of baptism for early Christians - it would let them know who they were as God's people. And it lets us know as well.

So what about this baptism? Throughout Christian history, debates have raged about baptism - most of these debates have involved "the who" and "the how." Who should be baptized? Infants or believers? And how should we do it? Sprinkling or dunking? Or in my case, I think the proper ecclesiastical term is - sloshing! But "the who" (at least the age of the who) and "the how" are not the central issue in Jesus' baptism. Rather, in his very short account of Jesus' baptism, Matthew focuses on "the what." And what happened at Jesus' baptism is absolutely profound.

Jesus and John have a short conversation about who should be baptizing whom (for the time being they agree that John will be the baptizer and Jesus the baptizee), Jesus goes under the water, he comes up and heaven opens up. The Spirit of God descends on Jesus like a dove. A pretty amazing sight to be sure. But Matthew saves the really good part, the truly astounding part for the end. After all of the action, Jesus hears a voice - and this is no ordinary voice, it is the very voice of God: This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Just let those words wash over you for a moment: This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. This is my Son. God claims Jesus, not as a great teacher, not as a moral man, not as a priest or a preacher, but as God's own son. What kind of a God is this? No god is intimately involved with his or her creatures - the gulf between the human and the divine is too great - but this God is not only involved - this God claims the creature as God's own child. And not only is this God the parent of the son, this God loves the son. This is my Son, the Beloved. Beloved by whom? By God! This God cares for the child - loves the child. This is a mother's or father's love - or the love between lovers - it is effusive and unqualified. And not only that, this God takes delight in the child. This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. This is a God who plays an active part in the child's life - this God watches the child, interacts with the child, has a relationship with the child.

This is the relationship that all of us are called into in our baptism - whether we remember the event of not. That is why every time we have a baptism we are invited, no, actually commanded, to remember our baptism. We can never be told enough "I love you" by the people who love us. And that is what we do when we remember our baptism - we hear God's effusive, outrageous, almost embarrassing words to us: This is my daughter, this is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.

Baptism, Jesus' baptism and our own, resoundingly answers the question, "Who are we as the people of God?" Yes, we are many things - we are people who believe specific things, we are people who act a certain way, we are people who worship God in particular ways - but most significantly, most profoundly, we are people who know, at our core, that we are loved unreservedly, unconditionally, unabashedly by God. Therefore, we are defined as the people of God, first and foremost, not by doctrine or belief, not by style or history, but by a relationship. And I have discovered in my own life, when I attend to that relationship, when I allow my relationship with God through Jesus Christ to be expansive and dynamic, to go down deep and soar up high, to be vulnerable and tenacious, it is then that all of the other parts of my life start to make sense. I am less hung up on the past, I am more present in the moment, and less anxious about the future. And so I sing the Doxology differently: Praise God from whom all relationships flow! My relationship to Linda, my relationship to my children, my relationship to the church, my relationship to the world, my relationship to myself.

The people of God are the people of God because we are rooted in our relationship, our active, dynamic, progressive, sometimes wonderful, sometimes frustrating relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And so our first work, then, as the people of God is to cherish that relationship, to deepen that relationship, to engage in that relationship, so that we might grow closer and closer to the God who lavishes such love on us.

An important implication arises when we make our first priority living in a dynamic relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. If our relationship with God is our first calling, then each of us must necessarily be on an intentional path of spiritual formation. For the past five years, we have offered many adult education classes - and many of them have been extremely well done bringing great scholarship, insight, creativity, and faithfulness to bear. I am especially grateful to the current Adult Education Team who have done great planning and who have pushed my thinking in this area. But for all of the solid programming and planning, I believe that we have too often not gone deep enough with this vital ministry. Part of the reason for this sometimes too shallow approach is because we do forget that the main purpose of Christian education is to help us deepen our relationship with Jesus. Too often we treat Christian education as an academic exercise rather than a spiritual one. And so, too often, we come at this ministry from the wrong direction. Too often those of us responsible for adult education have either tried to come up with ideas that we think others might find appealing, or when we ask you in questionnaires and surveys we tend to ask, "What would you find interesting?" Now there is nothing wrong in asking what you would find interesting - God forbid our adult education should be uninteresting! But if in our baptism we are called to grow, not in our knowledge about God, but in a lifelong dynamic relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then the more significant question is not "What are you interested in?" but "What do you need in order to grow in your faith?"

As I have reflected on lifelong spiritual growth, I have come to see adult education in three distinct but interconnected areas. The first is Foundations. If we think about our faith as a body, Foundations are the protein of our faith - Bible study, theology, polity, church history. These are the foundations that our faith is built on. On more than a couple of occasions of have heard members of this church talk about Bible study like it were Brussels sprouts - something that can be really unpleasant, but undeniably good for you. But Bible study, and other Foundations are not optional for the people of God - for like protein it builds muscle mass - my job, the Adult Education Planning Team's job is to make it delicious, appealing, and life-giving. The second area is Formations. Formations are the spiritual pursuits that help deepen our relationship with God - prayer, fasting, lectio divina, and other spiritual practices. Using our body image, Formations are our exercise - they increase our capacity to live our faith in rich and dynamic ways. This is the area that is most foreign to most of us who grew up Protestant - it takes some us of longer to wrap our heads and spirits around Formations - but that doesn't mean it isn't necessary. Just because you have never had an exercise regimen doesn't mean you don't have to exercise! The third area is Intersections - this is the area where we have programmed most of our adult education offerings over the past five years. Intersections are the places where our faith intersects with the world. It is interfaith dialogue, classes on mission, classes on worship and liturgy, classes on social issues in the church and in the world. Again, in our body metaphor, Intersections is our productive work. One of the great contributions of Presbyterians to the Church universal is an emphasis on Intersections - faith without works is dead. But the Intersections take on new meaning and purpose as they are built on solid Foundations and nurtured with ongoing Formations. All three of these areas are essential to the Christian life that is growing in faith and responding to God's call to be the people of God in the world. And I fear that for too long we have approached adult education as an optional activity and we have paid too little attention to helping members of this body intentionally grow in their faith.

Because God loves us so much and calls us into a lifelong relationship with Jesus, it is imperative that all of us seek to continually and consciously grow in our faith. This will require that each of us reflects not only about what would interest us in adult education, but also what we need. Are we weak because we are lacking the protein of Foundations? Do we need to exercise our spirits in the area of Formations? Do we need a new emphasis on Intersections? These are great questions, but they beg the question: "How do we know what we need?" I know at this time in my life that the area where I need to grow most is in Formations. I have known this for some time - but was never quite sure how to get started. So I found a spiritual director - someone who is skilled in listening to my deepest spiritual needs are desires, and who can help me discover ways to deepen my relationship with God. And that is what we need to begin intentionally at Trinity. By the end of the summer 2005, it is my plan to identify and train a team of spiritual directors or guides who will meet with members of this church so that everyone can have the opportunity to identify their spiritual needs and desires and then find appropriate and proactive ways to address them. This will be an enormous boost to the Adult Education Planning Team, for it will help them identify needs and trends in the congregation and respond accordingly.

One question that some of you may be asking: What if I don't want to participate in this? To you I have two responses - first, this new approach to spiritual guidance will start small - the team will only be able to meet with a portion of the congregation at first. We will make sure that those who go through the process of spiritual guidance report back to the congregation - it may sound a whole lot more appealing to you after some people have experienced its benefits. And second, this is not a rule, for God does not bind us with rules, but instead lovingly calls us into relationship. There is no one way to live out our relationship with God - just as there is no one way to be a spouse or partner, to be a parent, to be a friend. But I am convinced that our future as the people of God will be determined by the depth of the relationships that we foster with Jesus - for in him is life and his life is the light of all people.

There are other implications for us when we approach our faith primarily as relationship. But in the interest in not only being clear, but in the interest of also being practical I will stop with this one - and I am convinced that as we more and more pay attention to, plan for, and engage in our spiritual formation the other implications will become increasingly obvious to us.

You are my daughter, you are my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.